Steve McQueen - Marc Eliot [141]
Surgery revealed the cancer had spread to Steve’s left lung and intestines, and while under anesthesia, he suffered a major heart attack. He lasted another sixteen hours, regaining consciousness once, asking no one in particular if his stomach was flat now. He then closed his eyes and slipped back under. At 2:00 on Saturday morning, November 8, 1980, he suffered a second heart attack, caused by an embolism, according to Dr. Vargas. At the age of fifty, Steve died in his sleep, with Neile, Barbara, and his two children, Terry, twenty-one, and Chad, twenty, at his bedside.
The body was removed from the hospital later that day and loaded onto a white Learjet that flew the plain brass-handled casket back to Santa Paula. The funeral was held four days later at the ranch. As per his instructions, his body was then cremated and his ashes scattered over the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
AS THE world reacted with shock and sadness to the news, Barbara, acting on the instructions Steve left in his will, made arrangements to sell off all his tangible assets, which included nearly a hundred cars, two hundred motorcycles, and five planes. The auction would eventually bring in nearly $2 million. The Boys Republic in Chino received $200,000. The rest of his estate, valued at $12 million after taxes, was given over to his children and Barbara. As per his instructions, Neile and Ali got nothing.
Shortly before the auction took place, a memorial was held on November 9, 1980, attended by Steve’s closest friends and all three wives. When it was her turn to speak, Neile summed up Steve’s life with humor, brevity, and insight. “Steve liked to fuck blondes,” she said, “but he married brunettes.” After a moment’s awkward silence, everyone threw back their heads and roared with laughter.
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1 Although it is more common today, in 1979 mesothelioma was an extremely rarely diagnosed form of cancer. In a study by the National Cancer Institute that included 10 percent of the U.S. populaton for 1969–71, 120 cases of mesothelioma were diagnosed. By comparison, 24,000 cases of lung cancer showed up. Treatment is almost always limited to the alleviation of pain.
2 After Tom Horn, First Artists unsuccessfully tried to diversify into a number of businesses, including shirt manufacturing and gambling, both of which were less than successful—it couldn’t obtain a license to open a casino in London. It was the target of a successful takeover by Mascot Industries, an investment conglomerate, and shortly thereaafter was dissolved. The only valuable asset, its film library, remained with Mascot.
3 Dr. Kelley was no stranger to controversy over his methods. In January 1970, a Dallas judge issued an injunction against his practicing medicine in Texas after the attorney general’s office filed a suit accusing him of practicing medicine without a license. Kelley, who claimed to have cured his own cancer eighteen years earlier, called the case “a bunch of trumped-up charges.” According to Dr. Hans Weill, a professor of medicine at Tulane University Medical School who specialized in occupational lung disease, “The survival rate [for this type of cancer] is close to zero.”
Filmography
FEATURE FILMS
1. Somebody Up There Likes Me (MGM) 1956. Director: Robert Wise. Producer: Charles Schnee. Screenplay: Ernest Lehman, based on the autobiography of Rocky Graziano that was written with Rowland Barber. With Paul Newman, Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane, Eileen Heckart, Sal Mineo, Harold J. Stone, Joseph Buloff. Steve McQueen appears in a bit part as Fidel.
2. Never Love a Stranger (Allied Artists) 1958. Director: Robert Stevens. Producer: Harold Robbins. Screenplay: Harold Robbins, Richard Day, based on a novel by Robbins. With John Drew Barrymore, Lita Milan, Robert Bray, Steve McQueen, Salem Ludwig.
3. The Blob (Paramount) 1958. Director: Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. Producer: Jack H. Harris. Screenplay: Theodore Simonson, Kate Phillips. With Steve McQueen, Aneta Corsaut, Earl Rowe, Olin Howlin, Steven Chase, John Benson.
4. The St. Louis Bank Robbery